India, Dec. 13 -- When the gates of the nearly 140-year-old, iconic, Fergusson College grounds open on Saturday for the third edition of the Pune Book Festival, the city will once again witness a scale of book buying and public participation that few cultural events in Maharashtra have matched in recent years.

What began as an idea floated in 2023 during the G20 Education Working Group meeting in Pune, has, within three years, evolved into one of India's largest book gatherings after the World Book Fair in Delhi, organised by the National Book Trust (NBT), an autonomous body under the ministry of education.

The festival's growth has been rapid and uninterrupted. In its first year, the event had 200 stalls and drew about four lakh visito...